Speaking

Download Overview of Speaking Services and Topics

An energetic, engaging, and always inspiring presenter, Hilary offers a wide range of speaking programs. She is available regionally and nationally for keynotes, panels, and workshops at corporate, trade, educational, and non profit events or meetings. Participants learn how to increase business and advance their careers through Strelmark's unique approach to building strategic relationships. Because golf continues to be one of the most powerful business development tools, we offer several innovative programs that show how to leverage golf to gain and retain clients. All of our presentations are customized to meet the audience's needs. We can mix and match from the following programs to create the perfect content blend for your group:

1. Building Business By Taking A Strategic Relationship Approach
   How important is it for you and your company to build trust, establish a positive reputation, and make personal contact with current or potential clients? The key to establishing a successful pipeline of new business is found in relationships. Far too often, professional service firms adopt a silver-bullet approach by hiring more sales people to make cold calls, improving the website, or printing a new brochure. Yet what they really need is to take an approach that is based on building strategic relationships—to focus on a series of interactions that will build connections with prospects and result in new contracts. Activities that support the development of strategic relationships are the most cost-effective means of retaining and gaining clients. In this presentation participants learn the concepts and tools of strategic relationship building, a methodically planned and structured approach that is a proven strategy for growing a business.
   
   
2. New Business Presentations: Wooing Prospects & Winning Business
   Ask most prospects why they chose one professional service firm over another and the typical refrain goes something like this: "They were our kind of people. They go about things the same way we do. We knew we could work with them. In a nutshell, they spoke our language!" From writing proposals to developing PowerPoint presentations to making the final pitch, this session delivers powerful tools and communication techniques for determining the hot buttons of a potential client. Learn how to evaluate their needs, understand what drives them, and tailor what you offer to fit their culture and circumstances.
   
   
3. Creating A Personalized Business Development Plan
   A personal business development plan is a highly effective tool for those in the professional services industry where individuals are often required to "rain-make" their own careers within an organization. In this presentation, participants will learn how to develop a customized and attainable business development plan—complete with action items and benchmark measurements—that will allow him or her to continue working with existing clients while focusing on short- and long-term business development strategies. We show how to incorporate Strelmark's unique relationship mapping tool into the plan to effectively win engagements and expand the client base.
   
   
4. Relationship Truths: Mastering The Five Cs
   Research has shown that even in fields such as engineering, architecture, IT, law and finance, only about 15% of one's financial success is due to technical knowledge, while 85% is due to skill in human engineering which includes personality, likeability, and success with others. In this interactive workshop participants learn and begin to master the Five C's absolutely critical to building and managing relationships with prospects and clients: Communication, Candor, Concern, Competence, and Connection.
   
   
5. Business Golf 101
   Golf is one of the most powerful business development and career advancing tools, yet many professionals still fail to recognize its value. This presentation highlights the latest business research with anecdotes that underscore the power of golf in leveling the playing field, moving up the ladder, bidding on projects, bringing in new business, and creating alliances to deepen existing client relationships. Participants will gain conversational fluency and a basic understanding of the game's history, rules, and language, including the most important etiquette tips—from cell phones to keeping an eye on where your playing partner's ball lands. Also addressed are common questions such as, "At what level do I have to play in order to participate in business golf?"
   
   
6. The Golden Rules: Avoiding Business Golf Blunders
   Unlike any other sport, golf provides an unparalleled opportunity to establish trust with prospects, clients, and colleagues. Indeed, it has become the sport of choice for many Fortune 500 executives. Yet business golf can actually be detrimental if not properly planned and played. Geared to those who want to better leverage their golf game for business gain, Fordwich sets forth her popular "business golf blunders to avoid," such as taking the wrong approach, poor planning from strategy to the smallest details, playing over your head, appearance malfunctions, winning the game but losing the client, and missing the critical cues about when to (and when not to!) bring up business.
   
   
7. Leadership Lessons From The Green
   The game of golf is the perfect metaphor for leadership. Whether on the course or in the office, being your best requires the qualities of focus, consistency, team play, confidence, and positive thinking under pressure-not to mention passion. Geared to golf enthusiasts on the rise in business, Fordwich lays down her ground rules for linking the lessons of the green to the business arena. She highlights underlying principles that are common to both golf and leadership in a presentation that is as engaging as it is educational.
   
   
8. Diversity & Golf: Culture, Gender, Geography, Etiquette, and More
   Diversity is part and parcel of today's business environment. Golf has gone global just like the corporations people work for and is now played in 184 nations and territories around the world. Whether you're playing on your own or on foreign turf, this presentation addresses questions such as: Are golf rules and etiquette the same internationally—if not, where do they diverge? Do women face the same obstacles abroad as they do in the U.S.? What factors should I consider when putting together a foursome to play? What are the guidelines for playing with someone who is physically handicapped? By thinking ahead about where the people you are playing with are coming from, you can avoid making insensitive—or even unforgivable—moves.
   
   
9. Staying On Course: Flawlessly Executing A Corporate Golf Outing
   There are few better ways to appreciate employees, court clients, or fundraise for a favorite cause than a golf outing. But failing to adequately strategize and prepare can wreck your best business intentions. Putting together a plan and being organized is crucial to hosting a great event. In this presentation you'll learn how to set a budget; put together an organizing committee, pick a course, think up creative ways to play the course, brand your event, find sponsors, and secure door prizes or other giveaways.
   
   
10. Where There's Golf, There's Growth:
    Getting Real About What Will Truly Drive Business
    What are the trends and growth opportunities in the golf industry today? This presentation challenges par-for-the-course thinking and is designed to inspire golf professionals in general management, operations, retail merchandising, marketing and promotions, instruction, and tournament production. Fordwich delivers tangible and tactical approaches that will invigorate the business of golf by showing how to appeal to existing customers as well as non-golfing Americans (82% of our population). She addresses overcoming the time constraints Americans face, tapping into the need for fitness as obesity grows at an alarming rate, and attracting an increasingly diverse population including women. As Robert Harris, Director of Sports and Recreation at the The Greenbrier in West Virginia, commented after seeing this presentation, "Hilary's assumptions are (while painful to some of us) right on the money. We need to be more in tune with the changing demographics and patterns of American society if the game is to continue growing." Content also includes building customer loyalty and satisfaction, increasing utilization rates, upgrading amenities to meet modern expectations, differentiating the facility, and creating a media presence.

Organizations that Hilary has previously addressed include the following:

Additionally, Fordwich has served as a judge for the Best Marketing Award and annual awards for NAOIP (National Association of Office and Industrial Properties). She has been the MC for the Annual Marketing Awards of the American Marketing Association.